Top 5 Ugliest Band Breakups

There's something unique about rock music, and we don't just mean its ability to blow eardrums and turn good girls bad. No, we mean its tradition of epic breakups.
Unlike other businesses where you'd write a letter notifying your colleagues one month ahead of your departure, rock bands prefer to go out with a bang. Usually with a fistful of drugs and hate.
We've been sifting through band breakup stories, and after much deliberation have settled on what we think are the ugliest breakups in rock history. Some are from the classic era of rock back in the 20th century, but several made it into our top five because disputes between band members continue to rage on for decades into 2012. Sometimes a band will never learn from its mistakes.
So here, we present to you the official top 5 ugliest band breakups. If you think we missed out on a better story, share it in the comments.

05. The Eagles

This band ruled the world in the 1970s. But with great talent comes great egos.
In 1980 guitarists Glenn Frey and Don Felder hated each other so much that they agreed to a fight during a show at Long Beach, as Frey recalls:
We're onstage, and Felder looks back at me and says, Only three more song till I kick your ass, pal.' And I'm saying, Great. I can't wait.' We're out there singing Best of My Love,' but inside both of us are thinking, As soon as this is over, I'm gonna kill him.'
They reunited in 1994, but Felder left again in 2001. He claimed wrongful termination, and it was another six years before they settled the case out of court.

04. Oasis

The Gallagher brothers were often at odds with each other, but their tensions came to a head in 2009. Both Liam and Noel claim the other attacked them with a guitar, but either way, the band were finished.
Noel tells his side of the story, which suggests the breakup could have been even uglier: "[Liam had] gone into his private dressing room and he'd picked up this guitar. He came back in and he was wielding it about like an axe. He was quite violent he nearly took my face off."

03. Guns N' Roses

Tension between members of the early Gn'R lineup continue to boil two decades later, making this one of the most drawn out and exhausting breakups in rock history. A combination of drug abuse, late appearances and full-scale crowd riots promoted members to drop like flies from the lineup, and Axl Rose's frequent clashes with Slash and Duff McKagan led to their departure in the mid 90s.
There was an opportunity with their 2012 induction to the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame to make amends and put the past behind them, but months of rumors culminated in a stern letter from Rose saying he wouldn't take part in the ceremony.

02. Queensryche

Long-term singer Geoff Tate was fired from the band in spectacular fashion in June after allegedly attacking his bandmates before a show in Brazil and making deals on behalf of the band without their consent.
It could have ended there as a typically outrageous rock anecdote, but instead both parties dragged each other through the courts to sling mud in public view. The case continues, but as it stands, there appear to be two versions of Queensryche one with the musicians, the other fronted by Geoff Tate billing himself as the original voice of Queensryche. Whichever version you support, it's been damn ugly and it's not over yet.

01. Black Sabbath

They started as pioneers of metal, but money and fame led to greed, drugs and the dark side. They should have listened to Yoda.
Tony Iommi decided to fire Ozzy Osbourne for boozing too much in 1979, though every member abused drugs at the time. "We were all doing a lot of drugs, a lot of coke, a lot of everything, and Ozzy was getting drunk so much at the time," Iommi explained later. "We were supposed to be rehearsing and nothing was happening. It was like 'Rehearse today? No, we'll do it tomorrow.' It really got so bad that we didn't do anything."

The real mark of an ugly breakup is when drama between founding members continues today. As with Guns N' Roses, 2012 saw perhaps the ugliest period in Black Sabbath's existence when founding drummer Bill Ward was shut out of their new reunion over a contractual dispute, leading to a very public breakdown in their relationship. Matters were made infinitely more complicated when Iommi was struck by cancer.
The remaining members continue to work on their new album, but with the drama still fresh in our memory, Black Sabbath and Bill Ward have earned themselves our award for the ugliest (and perhaps most tragic) breakup in rock history.

I don't think the break up led directly to Dime's murder, no one could've foreseen that it would've driven a schizo over the edge to gun Dime down on stage.
But as it stands even without that in mind, you are right, i was a damn ugly break up =/

I heard both theories, band members heard him blaming Dime for the break up while shooting, NG thinking that band members could read his mind, and the thing with the stolen lyrics or riffs or something....
Nobody will ever know the whole truth I think. The only thing I'm sure about is, that this is the worst thing that ever happened to Metal.

Honestly Waters seemed to be at odds with all other 3 members of the band. Yes he did eliminate Rick Wright (R.I.P.) of his full membership status because he felt he wasn't contributing enough. But it was Waters and Gilmour who were the 2 main creative forces and devisive personalities in the split. Notice that Gilmour reformed Pink Floyd with everyone BUT Waters, while Waters fought them in court over use of the name

I think Marty was fired, don't quote me but I remember Dave talking about how Marty wanted to go in a different direction than the band (the decade long decent into something pop hits of the 90's shows it.)
Kerry did leave on his own. His other band was starting to go places and he wanted to focus on that band. lol
Nick Menza left on his own though after Cryptic. That's all I can think of. I don't know about the newer lineups.

Marty was not fired. The part you said about going in a different direction is true.
There was a point where Mustaine asked him to return to their original thrash roots, thats when Marty disagreed and left for Japan. (This is Mustaine's version though)

Yes the Beatles where on their way to a break up. Yoko was a MAJOR catalyst. Paul and John would often hang out after the Beatles, whenever Yoko wasn't around, so maybe they wouldn't have broken up without Yoko. Why ignore a major part of the story?
Also Van Halen was pretty ugly.

If I'm not wrong, @Pol-Pot-Smoker got it wrong, Parker Griggs DID hit the bassist on stage, but they didn't broke up, he just recruited a new bassist. There's video footage showing it on youtube... Btw, @zalant made my day, lol

There is more drama than uglyness in these examples. I was expecting something a bit more memorable. IDK, Skip Spence tried to murder a member of his band Moby Grape with a fire axe. There has to be more stories like that around.
BTW, Skip Spence was fired and commited in a mental institution.
And then re-hired by Moby Grape!
And then commited again.

Black Sabbath has nothing of an ugly breakup, they broke up for good, Toni, Geezer and Bill went with Ronnie James Dio and released 2 of their best albums. Ozzy went to do his solo carrier that I don't like so much.
The band needed a change, it's good they broke up at that point.

I agree completely, everyone raves about how "Heaven and Hell" is so amazing, but the only song I like is "Neon Knights", the rest just sounds like boring, generic metal to me (and I'm a big fan of original Sabbath).

The first album I ever heard of "Sabbath" was Mob Rules and I fell in love with it. It's my favorite of all Sabbath albums. My dad showed me the original stuff later and I loved that too. If Iommi and Geezer are on the same song, it tends to be a great damn song, and I can't pick personally between the two major eras.

Is Mob Rules borinng to you? Are Voodoo and Lady Evil boring ? Or even I from dehumanizer?
I think it completes the Black Sabbath discography, because as much as I love the original line up, Ozzy had hard time singing a different line than the lyrics, I give you Doom sounding and cult songs. On the other hand Dio is a great singer because he brings he's own melodies and he's personnal lyrics (Ozzy barelly wrote anything, Geezer did).
The albums they released with Dio have a so good reputation since they are well produced and with a brand new artistic direction. I don't really like their quiet songs, but I hate ballads in general...
If what I said doesn't ring a bell I'd advice you to listen to the live at the radio city music hall, released recently by Heaven and hell (contractual name for the line up with dio)

Indeed, I find "Mob Rules" utterly boring.
And while Dio had a great voice it did not fit Sabbath and I wanted the doom and cult. If I want something that sounds like Thin Lizzy - I frigging play Thin Lizzy.

I wouldn't really say the break-up of Black Sabbath was that ugly, the only issue was that only Geezer had the balls to tell Ozzy he was fired.
It's the contract issues in the reform that was more of a problem. If all else fails, blame Sharon. That seems the general rule.

call me an emo fagg, but Escape the fate (even though still playing) broke with the singer because he and the bass player had a beef or something? might not be as ugly as i recall it now.. but still, the singer is now in Falling in Reverse

Well, it was way worse.
Ronnie (vocalist) got arrested for accessory of murder and then the band fired him and hired Craig Mabbitt from Blessthefall. During Ronnies jail time, fans of Ronnie were chanting all kinds of disrespectful bullshit at Escape the Fate during liveshows. Yes, getting Craig might have been insensitive, but they also have to move on as a band, so it's not that weird.
As a reaction to that Craig started to blurt out crap about Ronnie and his fans, which only made things worse. And then, when he got out of jail, Ronnie formed the ban Falling In Reverse with whom he recorded several tracks that were quite hateful towards his past band.
A sidetrack in the story is that the bassist of Escape the Fate, a long time friend of Ronnie, also took up a fight with Ronnie through an interview I believe. However after Falling in Reverse put out their first album, Ronnie and Escape the Fate allegedly cleared all crap and talked a lot of it through.
They seem to be friendly to eachother now. Heck, Falling in Reverse 'covers' Escape the Fate songs from the Ronnie-period live, but then again Ronnie also has rights to that music.

I'm not a fan, but I really can't believe Dream Theater didn't make it here. They have been in the headlines twice as much as Queensryche. But I guess technically they aren't broke up. I guess I was just talking about the split between Mike Portnoy, but if that's the case, most of these bands aren't broke up.

Not a band most care about, but Coal Chamber was pretty bad. Rayna dropped out first and word was it was money related. The drummer for Sevendust was her boyfriend at the time and he made it no secret he had strong feelings against Dez Fafara. The band broke up not too long after Fafara and the guitarist began fighting on stage during a performance.

Paul wanted Linda's dad to manage them. John, George and Ringo wanted Alan Kline, who managed the Rolling Stones at that point. John convinced the others that if Mr. Eastman managed the band, then Paul would have more control over the band because was married to Linda.

that's because relatively to guns n roses their not well known and less people care, the guns n roses break up is 95% more public and people are more well aware of the bad blood of the band. I'm not a fan of gnr anyway but i think they should have come out number 1 on here i mean at least most of these other bands got back together.

Not that it makes G'n'R's breakup any more or less ugly, but the reason Slash left, according to Slash, was that Axl wanted to take full control of the band and essentially make the other members hired musicians on contracts....so basically what the current iteration of the band is. Plus, there was the drugs, booze, showing up late etc. that was mentioned.

That definitely wasn't an ugly breakup. Jimmy and Robert played tours together, and they didn't have any bad blood with JPJ. They just broke up when they knew that they wouldn't have Zeppelin without bonzo. (Like the Who probably should have done, or at least with a better drummer than kenny jones)

Not sure if the Beatles qualifies as "ugly" when a lot of the members worked with each other after the breakup. They all helped Starr get his solo career going, Harrison played in Lennon's Plastic Ono band, etc.
Hell, in a Beatles documentary I watched, it sounded like John and Paul eventually burried the hatchet and considered reuniting and making music together again.
Also, what are the odds Oasis reforms soon. Can you really take a Gallagher brothers breakup that seriously? How many times have they done this?

John & Paul may have buried the hatchet, but an ugly part of the Beatles breakup was animosity between George and Paul. You could see it in their argument in the "Let it Be" film. Late 90's, Paul would talk about reforming and George always issued the same comment about how "It won't be the Beatles without John". I don't think George & Paul ever did anything together after the breakup.

I think they'll realize that working together = more people listening and buying their records, bigger shows, and more money. If they reform, it'll be a big story and people will be interested. Maybe not as big had this all gone down in 1996, but still.
I read once, can't remember where, that Noel has been accused of being pretty cunning in regards to playing the media and driving tabloid coverage of the band. I think the breakup is obviously legit, but in the past he played things up for more coverage.

I want to explain more on this to those who don't know:
Sabbath was going to open for Ozzy but Dio didn't want to, so they instantly fired Dio. Then it turns out they where planning to reunite the entire time so even if Dio did agree he'd get kicked out anyways. Then when they did reunite, they played like one show I think and Ozzy said "Oh I don't want to reunite".
As Dio put it "Somebody wanted to break up this band, and they did a very good job of doing it"

I'd still give top spot to Sabbath or GnR since drugs and booze are basically out of the equation nowadays but they still can't KISS and make up. Speaking of KISS, why haven't they broken up yet? They should and I am a HUGE KISS fan, to boot.

Yep. A breakup where two members end up dead, and a third is in jail for murder is definitely messy. Even if the band manages to reform.
And if you don't count that as a breakup because the band reformed, then Black Sabbath, Guns N' Roses, and Queensryche don't count either.

The absence of Pantera renders this list completely insignificant. Also, Black Sabbath shouldn't be no. 1 here; I don't think they should even be on the list. Their breakup with Ozzy is actually something that happens to a ton of bands; they just happened to be the best and most significant among them. Also, as someone said before me, Mayhem definitely deserves to be here. Tied for no.1 with Pantera.

Coal Chamber was Dez Fafara's band before DevilDriver.
And yes, Morgan Rose, though he want from boyfriend to husband and father soon after. Look up the song Enemy by Sevendust. Morgan basically wrote it as a slam on Dez referring to him as 'Pez' during the song. The idea is that Morgan wanted to knock the shit out of Dez hard enough that his head would resemble a rez dispenser.

This is a dumb list. Queensryche at number 2? Really? UG only put it there because it's still recent, and it's not even really a break up. It was the lead singer getting the axe and being a cry baby about it and yelling "Mine!" That does not constitute an ugly break-up.
I'm surprised no one has said the Sex Pistols. That's one of the ugliest break-ups I've ever heard of. The band went on their first U.S. tour often playing shows intentionally booked by their manager to hostile, redneck audiences who hated them, fights between the band and audience breaking out often, Sid Vicious disappearing on heroin binges and being found in the hospital, and finally the band breaking up mid-tour and leaving John Lydon stranded in the U.S. with no money to get home. There's more details than that and it's pretty damn ugly:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_Pistols... d_the_end_of_the_band

The breakup between NWOBHM legend Saxon and their bass player Steve Dawson and later Graham was ugly, or may I say the aftermath was pretty ugly with the two ex members reforming as SOB (Saxons original name) and later renaming themselves Saxon with the case of stopping Biff Byford using Saxon with the original band, needless to say that it legally backfired on Oliver and Dawson who now has to call themselves Oliver/Dawson Saxon or ODS.
ODS has made some songs, including the awful Nursery Crimes some time back and many years later (17?) has finally released "Motorbiker" with ex Shy vocalist John "Wardi" Ward. Oliver and Dawson is releasing a book about them being the "real spinal tap" (yes I know Saxon was the inspiration) but even though they are great musicians, they really need to get over their Saxon demons, rename their band, new logo and create songs more suited to Wardi's vocal range and sound - doesn't mean to say they should forget about their past

Well I was wondering how they managed to do such a good article...
The better the band gets the uglier their break up will be.
It's pretty much a miracle that Ramones never broke up because the guys lived like 10 years in the same damned minibus and barely talked to eachother..

The most famous and acrimonious break up is missing...The Beatles!!!!! Also Simon & Garfunkle, Pink Floyd, The Who.
Lot of snobbery about Oasis.. it's like any music you either like it or you don't. For example I wouldn't listen to Pantera....not my cup of tea...lots of people do though...fair play to them. For me Oasis and in particular Noel Gallagher are a class act.

The Beatles' breaking up was a grave omission.
Pink Floyd was mostly quantity over quality - lots of break-ups, all of them relatively tame compared to the ones on the list.
As for Simon & Garfunkel, they broke up twice. Both of them relatively cleanly, with no harsh words or lawsuits.
The Who I wouldn't even consider as being a "breakup" because if they had a choice in the matter they'd still all be performing together to this day. For the band as an entity, death is the cleanest cut there is.

The Libertines: The group recently reunited at Reading festival, but the previous split is still the stuff of legend. The debilitating drug use of Pete Doherty tore them apart, and it was a miracle it lasted as long as it did. Pete and Carl required bodyguards to separate them during recording sessions for their second album. Doherty was eventually kicked out after he was arrested for robbing Barat's flat.

coheed and cambria's separation with their bassist involved a man taking a drug store hostage by threatening to blow it up. A little more ugly than generally being displeased with one another...just saying.